My Experiance Registering With The V.A. (Veterans Affairs)

Updated on February 11, 2014

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My Experiance

Okay, well it has been two years since I got out of the Corps and finally decided to go and register with the V. A. hospital thing that everyone was telling me to go and do. Right off the bat I get there and I’m completely overwhelmed with the pin hat type that for the most part live at these places. If you don’t know what I am referring to with the term “pin hat” it is the veterans that wear 1,000 pins in their hat screaming I served. I am not degrading the pin hats in anyway but advertising my time in the military is not my first choice of fashion. Anyways, after pushing through all the pin hats to try and figure out where I needed to go I stopped at the front desk. I literally said “hey” and they stopped me right there and told me registration is down the hall, to the left, second door on the right. I thought that was easy as I went walking down the hall to find the registration office. I got down the hall, took a left and I had instant anxiety considering there was probably close to 5 different lines of people about 6 people long. Once I saw that jumble of people standing there waiting I turned around and went back to my car.

I have a weird anxiety issue, that they are claiming is service related, that makes me lose my mind a little in situations where there are a lot of people and I do not know exactly where I need to go and what I need to do. When this flares up I need to just turn around and get the hell out of there in order for me to keep calm. It is a frustrating thing to deal with but that’s my freaking life for you.

Getting off track.....

Once again back to the story. Once I came back in I noticed the lines didn’t seem to go away so I just kind of stood in the middle for like 20 minutes or what felt like it before a nice secretary came over and asked me what I was looking for. I told her registration and she pointed to the second door on the right and what do you know, it was the only door without a line. I guess in my instant uncomfortable situation with the lines I didn’t realize that the door I was supposed to go to had no lines attached to it. I walked in there, told the nice lady what I needed, and she did everything for me. She registered me, got me set up with a primary care doctor, got me an appointment with the mental health people to try and tackle that dang anxiety from those stupid lines, and even walked me around and showed me what I needed. I was dreading going to the V.A. because of all the bad things I have heard about it and the fact that as a grunt I did not want to deal with anything around military if I didn’t have to. Once I got to where I needed to be it was an easy and great experience. We went over my benefits and what they can offer me as well as how to go about applying for different things. To be honest I wish I did it sooner. If you are getting out of the service or have been out but have not talked to the V.A. yet my advice to you would be go talk to them folks. You understand what you rate a lot more after you do.

Let Us Know About Your Experiance

I would love it if you guys would add your own experiences with the V.A. in the comments box. It would be interesting to hear your experiences.